Some of the tourism matters which frequently pop up in Anguilla include the need for a larger budget to enable the Anguilla Tourist Board to better market the island as a destination of choice; the need for improved access and other pertinent issues.
These, and other related matters, form the basis for this second feature article by The Anguillian, a follow-up to last week’s story entitled “Anguilla Tourist Board Poised to Revolutionise the Tourism Industry”.
The restructured Anguilla Tourist Board has three of four recently-appointed executives who, as part of their varied responsibilities, are engaged in the promotion of tourism. They are the Manager of Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Shellya Rogers-Webster who has a generally extensive portfolio; the Marketing Officer, Mr. Colwayne Pickering; and the Destination Experience Assistant Manager, Mr. Jameel Rochester. The fourth executive officer, whose responsibilities are confined to Accounting, is Mr. Gershwin Lake.
Mrs. Rogers-Webster has been the main tourism spokesperson to The Anguillian. “I think, in an ideal sense, we need maybe at least 10-20 percent more than our current budget to really roll out a number of things we want to do,” she told the newspaper. “A number of Anguillians have complained that we are not visible as other Caribbean islands are, but what they are not realising is that the tourism budgets of those islands are huge in comparison to the budget that the Anguilla Tourist Board has to work with. In addition, our budget includes operations and employees’ salaries.
“It is easy to say: ‘We have seen St. Kitts, or another island, in a big billboard somewhere’, but that billboard could easily cost over 200,000 dollars to run it over a period of time. Marketing has become very expensive so one of the things we are trying to do, as much as possible, is to ultilise the digital marketing space. Of course, however, that too comes with a cost sometimes if you want to target particular audiences and other sources. I think we always need more money, but we are doing our best with what we have.”
The Corporate Affairs Manager was asked to elaborate on the 10-20 percent more money she spoke about. “I think if we had maybe an additional million US dollars it would give us a better push,” she replied, noting that in comparison the budgets of some of the bigger Caribbean islands were not less than ten million US dollars. “Currently, our budget is under nine million EC dollars (less than three million US dollars) and this is responsible for everything: paying for the management of our five international offices in the US, Latin America, Germany, Italy and the UK – and this is a major cost to run them on an annual basis. That money also covers our local employees and operations.
“On top of that, we have been subsidising Seaborne Airlines. The Anguilla Tourist Board is not responsible for access and this is something I want to reiterate for people asking questions. Based on our mandate, we are not responsible for access but the Anguilla Tourist Board realises that if you have no access, you have no market. It doesn’t make sense to do extensive marketing if there is no access to the island. One of the things we need to be doing is growing our access – not just over St. Maarten, but over San Juan, St. Kitts and Antigua where possible. The Anguilla Tourist Board decided to subsidise Seaborne Airlines so a very high cost comes with that directly from the Anguilla Tourist Board’s marketing budget. It means that we are doing less marketing and promotion.”
Mrs. Rogers-Webster continued: “I would say that Seaborne Airlines started doing quite well prior to Hurricane Irma, but once Irma came it was like a reset and starting from scratch. We guarantee twenty seats so once the airline gets those seats filled there is no cost to the Anguilla Tourist Board. We are hoping that, overtime, the route [San Juan/Anguilla/San Juan] will continue to grow and we will have to invest less but until that time, it is a very high cost. We are encouraging Anguillians to explore the option of using the service because you can book from Anguilla to the United States directly through Delta, JetBlue and American Airlines as they have codeshare agreements with Seaborne Airlines. Sometimes it is actually cheaper to fly out of Anguilla. You just have to play with the dates. If the service continues to do better, it would mean that the Anguilla Tourist Board can then invest more in marketing activities.
“Right now, the Seaborne Airlines flights to Anguilla are five days a week and it is one flight. We are hoping that once things continue to do well, in the next tourism season, October/November, we will be having an additional flight. We will then play around the days – whether we are going to keep them [the flights] at five or seven days a week. The reason we need the additional flight is because currently there are some connectivity issues.
“On one end, when you are coming down to the island or going up, at one of the ways you must overnight in San Juan because of the connectivity. But if you have an additional flight – one that goes up in the morning and one that comes down in the evening – there would be better connectivity. It is also an option for local travellers who may want to go to San Juan in the morning and return to Anguilla in the evening. Having an additional flight is based on the service doing better because if the first flight is able to hold its own, we can then invest in the second flight. The night flight has a higher cost because there is a standard monthly fee for having the aircraft idle at night on Anguilla, and this has to be covered by the Anguilla Tourist Board. The pilots also have to be accommodated overnight – a cost borne by the Tourist Board as well.
“Unfortunately, we have not had any private sector support for Seaborne Airlines. None of our partners has guaranteed any of the seats or decided to put up the pilots. It is a work in progress. We are trying to work closer with our partners to rebuild our relationships to a point where we can do better. The Anguilla Tourist Board can only do so much. It is important for our partners to come to the table because this is what happens in other islands. The Government guarantees some airline seats and the private sector also does so as well, including offering packages to guests. You get your flight and you get your hotel because the private sector is guaranteeing your seat. There are islands that are coming up with creative ways of guaranteeing some of the seats thus spreading the cost of doing business.”
Mrs. Rogers-Webster was asked to comment on access to Anguilla from other routes. “Access from the Antigua route has certainly been a challenge and this has been shown in our arrivals from the UK which have gone down overtime,” she responded. “I think this is a direct result that LIAT pulled out of the route to Anguilla because there are a lot of persons who really believe in that UK/Antigua route whether on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. There has definitely been a void with only chartered flights to Anguilla.
“Trans-Anguilla is offering a chartered scheduled service. It is not a daily scheduled service so there are some limitations, and also Trans-Anguilla is a smaller carrier. I know that Inter-Caribbean Airlines was interested in doing business with Anguilla but one of the things we also need to remember is that airline routes development is not an easy task. What people who are always asking about service to Anguilla should realise is that the airline business is about profit-making, and airlines are going to fly the routes that bring them the most profit. So the negotiations take time. I think Anguillians expect a lot but really do not understand the complexities and the implications of getting access into an island. Having access is one thing, maintaining it is a completely different story. Trade Wind Airlines is also planning to do chartered flights serving that same Antigua/Anguilla route. Trans-Anguilla also does regular flights from St. Kitts back and forth – especially since St. Maarten has had its void. St. Kitts has actually increased the direct flights it is having on the larger airlines – and that provide some good options for us. We, at the Anguilla Tourist Board, are trying to get our guests to explore their options. They are used to the St. Maarten route but they should see what other flights are available when they try to get to Anguilla.”
Questioned about the Anguilla terminal in Dutch St. Maarten, through which many tourists have been coming to the island, Mrs. Rogers-Webster said: “The St. Maarten Ferry Terminal is managed by the Anguilla Tourist Board. It was completely destroyed by Hurricane Irma and, as a result, we had to relocate the port facility. Unfortunately, for the past few months we have been trying to get our MOU document with the St. Maarten Government signed. There have been a number of challenges, but no fault of the Anguilla Tourist Board and it is just there to be signed – a matter that is being handled by the Ministry of Tourism in terms of Government to Government.”
She stated that, in the meantime, the Anguilla Tourist Board had gone ahead, without a signed MOU, to repair a former restaurant building, at the new port location, to serve as a temporary Anguilla ferry terminal for about one to two years pending the rebuilding of a complete port facility. “Once our facility is up and running, we will have the capabilities to facilitate the night ferry service because the MOU gives us the flexibility of visitors travelling to Anguilla up to 10 pm, “ she stated. “The Anguilla Tourist Board, however, cannot make that determination. That has to be from seaport to seaport, and the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority will really determine whether they would allow night travel to Anguilla,” she added
Meanwhile, the Anguilla Tourist Board’s Marketing Division, currently being run by Mr. Colwayne Pickering, as Marketing Officer, is actively engaged in its own area of responsibility. “In my role, I am responsible for the overall promotion of Anguilla as a destination to the international markets,” he explained. “Although there are agents who have responsibility for international markets, my role is supporting them in terms of how we market Anguilla to the various industry partners – the travel trade and the tour operators – who actually reserve seats and flights for persons wanting to come to Anguilla. It is the look, the feel and the message of why Anguilla is a destination that I am responsible for. I came in on the first of February 2018 in that capacity.”
He went on: “One of the pillars we are going to be focusing on is being in the faces of the people who matter as the industry partners, internationally; and the second part is doing the same thing locally. One of the first things that we would have restructured, as part of the marketing plan, is to re-engage all of our local partners and meet with them face to face highlighting some of the things we are planning for 2018 and beyond, and to garner their support in taking that forward. We can sit here and put all these plans together, but if the industry partners are not on board, then we will be doing it in vain so to speak. So we are engaging all the major properties, villa owners, restauranteurs – everyone who has something to do with tourism, and this is almost everyone.”
Mr. Pickering stressed that, among the matters now being done, was ensuring that there is a uniformed marketing message in terms of the island’s sales presentations, brand, and the look and feel of how Anguilla was being sold. “What has happened in the past is that the marketing representatives had taken the lead to sell the destination how they see fit,” he stated. “They did a great job. However, we cannot have all these representatives having different sales methods and no one leading the process. The restructuring that happened actually gives us the ability to bring everything at Head Office so that we have the resources now in hand to deliver the directives and to support those directives. Unifying that message is one of the key pillars of what we are doing, and so we are going to be visible in the faces of the people. Another area we are going to be focussed on, as a pillar, is the awareness of the Anguilla Tourist Board and what we are responsible for. I can only speak from a marketing perspective, at this moment, and what we do is to sell Anguilla as a destination of our mandate by any means necessary.
“One of the things we are going to be doing is getting into local awareness and using that in several forms – our industry partners, our access carriers like for example, Seaborne Airlines. Seaborne is one of the major elements in terms of bringing people into Anguilla. We know the situation in St. Maarten and how they are devastated at the moment – and how their rebuilding efforts are delayed – and so we have to look at other ways and means of getting people here. We are supporting Seaborne in terms of marketing because if we can fill the seats of the planes, it means that, as a destination, we are going to become more visible and Seaborne will want to do more business with us, and will give us incentives to do more business with them. And so we are going to drive that local awareness in terms of industry partners collaborations as well as getting member of the public to understand and bring them along. I still think that every Anguillian and resident of Anguilla should be selling Anguilla.”
Pickering was pleased that, as of January 15, Trans-Anguilla has seven scheduled flights from Antigua to Anguilla to cater for major carriers like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and KLM. He also mentioned discussions with Inter-Caribbean Airlines, and other carriers, to supplement that schedule, particularly during the peak of the tourist season. He was of the view that there is easy access to Anguilla and that the situation was not as bad as people thought.
In terms of the Tourist Board’s Destination Experience Division, the Assistant Manager, Mr. Jameel Rochester, who took up his appointment on February 1, 2018, said his Division “deals with the promotion, enhancement and encouragement of our different components of the destination experience afforded to guests arriving in Anguilla.”
He continued: “The visitors’ experience begins from the time they consider coming to Anguilla and purchased their ticket. We use an interactive tool called ‘Experience Mapping’. We zone into all the touch points our guests would come into, while travelling to Anguilla, to see what are the challenges and the advantages they have at these points, and how we can further enhance their destination experiences. We look at our international hubs in St. Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua and San Juan to see what kind of experience our guests get at each hub; their transition from those hubs; the experience they are going to have at the public ferry dock in Marigot and our private dock on the Dutch side; their experience coming into Blowing Point while transitioning to immigration; customs; security; the porters, dispatchers, and our most important component, our taxi-drivers, who play a very critical role towards the development and promotion of Anguilla and our guest experience.”
Rochester added: “What we are doing is setting standards for the destination experience not only for Anguilla, but international standards where we will be able to give the ultimate guest experience and provide the best customer service to enhance Anguilla as a luxury destination.”
